Time to reassess expectations

[phoneticerror]

4 minutes ago, Sunbury Fox said:

We're in a fight with Spurs, West Ham, Arsenal and Everton (plus maybe Villa and Leeds) for a 5th-8th place finish. Getting top 4 was always a very tough ask this season, given the strength in depth of Man City, Chelsea and Man U, combined with Liverpool having key players back from injury and our own ongoing injury crisis. 

 

I’d probably remove Leeds from that statement 😂

[Happy Fox]

Our back four if Bertrand and Vestergaard are available are a damn site better than Thomas and Amartey, that should hopefully help us going forward 

[HighPeakFox]

With injuries as they are and with our options on the RW, it would probably just be sanity to reassess. However, I also think that 2 games in only tells us so much. It's a bit much to attack the OP when you read the OTT vitriol in the match thread and post-match thread, he's saying nothing wrong at all.

[damolcfc]

1 minute ago, phoneticerror said:

I’d probably remove Leeds from that statement 😂

And villa arsenal 😉 

Yeah think top 4 is a massive ask looking at the competition 

It will be Man city Chelsea  liverpool +1 this year (not a particular order) I reckon.

I'd take 5th right now 😉 and a euro cup 

[Innovindil]

4 minutes ago, SydenhamFox said:

Nothing spoiled or entitled about saying we ought to modify our expectations of finishing 4th or 5th because of our injuries. It’s actually entitled to think otherwise. 

If you have expectations of finishing 4th or 5th before the season then you're already feeling entitled. 

 

We play 38 league games. All we need to is support the team for the 38. People will enjoy this period of success a lot more if they stopped over analysing every match and point. 

[Strokes]

I’ve never expected 4th or 5th in any case.

 

[ARM1968]

20 minutes ago, Webbo said:

It's 1 match, we had someone sent off. 

I hope that this is the case too, however I knew in my bones West Ham would thump us. Was hoping for a draw. They were well on top before Perez was sent off. If we’re honest they would have won anyway I think, which is disappointing. 
 

Injuries are obviously a serious issue, again. Difficult to have a cohesive back line if it’s major components are missing. However, we should have enough to be tighter there to be honest. 
 

Vardy, too early to say with any accuracy. Looked good against Wolves. Obviously much less effective last night, as was the whole team to be fair to him. 
 

Could be a long old season and a top 10 finish might be what we should be expecting in reality. 
 

All that being said, it’s just one game against a team who have always been a thorn in our side apart from a few occasions. 

 

 

 

[1994fox]

Internet fans man 

[coalvillefox]

We are 1 point behind Man Utd who are many peoples favourites to win it and 3 points off the top.

 

We have played 2 games!!!! Get a grip!!

[Guest Lako42]

We won't get top 4 because we don't seem to learn. 

 

We turned up at a club that bullied us twice last season and had exactly the same approach to the game. 

 

I never thought we'd finish top 4 anyway so fortunately I can't be accused of having a meltdown. 

 

Top four are stronger, we still seem a bit naive 

[phoneticerror]

1 minute ago, damolcfc said:

And villa arsenal 😉 

Yeah think top 4 is a massive ask looking at the competition 

It will be Man city Chelsea  liverpool +1 this year (not a particular order) I reckon.

I'd take 5th right now 😉 and a euro cup 

Fact is, if we make it to the top 4, we’ll get destroyed in the CL anyway. At the moment, we deserve to be in the Europa League, and I’m fine with that. 

[phoneticerror]

1 minute ago, coalvillefox said:

We are 1 point behind Man Utd who are many peoples favourites to win it and 3 points off the top.

 

We have played 2 games!!!! Get a grip!!

Man U won’t win it. Mark my words

[coalvillefox]

Just now, phoneticerror said:

Man U won’t win it. Mark my words

I don't think they will either, my point is, no one is melting down at Utd because they only have 4 points after 2 games whereas some of our fans think we will finish mid-table because we have 3 points after 2 games

[phoneticerror]

Just now, coalvillefox said:

I don't think they will either, my point is, no one is melting down at Utd because they only have 4 points after 2 games whereas some of our fans think we will finish mid-table because we have 3 points after 2 games

A result like last night will always get a knee jerk reaction. Nobody wants to see the boys get taken up the poop shoot like that.

 

It could be a worrying sign of things to come, but we have a lot of injuries and aren’t playing smart with the players we have available to us. I’m trying to stay positive, but it really could go either way.

[ARM1968]

2 minutes ago, coalvillefox said:

I don't think they will either, my point is, no one is melting down at Utd because they only have 4 points after 2 games whereas some of our fans think we will finish mid-table because we have 3 points after 2 games

I think it’s more the manner of the repeated capitulation to West Ham that is bothering some. 

[TrentFox]

If last night’s performance was repeated week in, week out, we’d be finishing around 14th. But it won’t be. There will be performances where we think we are top four. There’ll be ones that are more bottom four. It’s how it is. Our players will get fitter, recover from injuries, hit form, etc etc. Yes, last night was simply atrocious at every level ……. but it really is just one game. 

[roblcfc84]

I’ve been a fan long enough not to have any long-term expectations, but I think we all went into this season with fairly high expectations. Those may be met, and we can all see some of defensive challenges we have at the minute. But, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for fans to call out some really obvious and consistent selection and tactical issues - continuing to play Vardy up front alone, persisting with Perez, leaving Nacho out after an incredible end to the season. Players like Praet not getting a proper chance. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to challenge some of that and it doesn’t make you any less of a fan. 

[StanSP]

20 minutes ago, SydenhamFox said:

You have despair for someone who says we should modify our expectations of finishing 4th or 5th because we have a terrible defensive crisis?

I just think it's quite early to do it. 

 

We lost 1 game out of 2. And had a man sent off in the process. 

 

It wasn't great to watch last night and I'm under no illusion we know and can be seriously better, but we lost games last season while in an injury crisis and still managed to finish 5th. We have better squad depth (to an extent) and hopefully the new players bed in soon which will help us when the fixture list becomes a bit more busy. 

 

It's nothing personal, just frustrating seeing so many comments/topics all at once as if there's some kind of Arsenal-esque crisis where hopes are dashed after only 2 games and the knock on effect is that heads start to turn on the manager. 

 

Like others, I stress it's only been 1 game in a new season where we've not played greatly and been on the receiving end of a bad result. We won't be perfect and anyone who thinks we are or will be is deluded (not saying you are, just generally). 

[Fox92]

For all the people against OP, using a man being sent off as your justification isn't enough though. We were terrible with 11 men.

[chapero82]

I think we will finish 9th this season.. not a knee jerk reaction I just think with the CB issues we are in a bit of trouble 

 

especially with AFCON we will be even shorter if Amartey and Ndidi aren’t here because if Vestergaard or Evans aren’t fit we only have Soyuncu 

[Guest bennytwohats]

I don’t disagree with the point being made here, but for different reasons to what some are saying.

 

The fact that people are having a meltdown after two games to me just shows expectations have run a little wild amongst our fans. To me that’s where we need to downgrade. 5th the past two seasons was a hell of an achievement. Doing it again this year would be amazing, some people seem to be acting a bit entitled about it though.

 

I feel like a club like ours in a season like this the expectations are to be in the top half, around the Europe spots. 4th/5th is what you hope for, not what you expect. It’s in that context I wish people would keep their expectations in check.

 

Last night was a stinker, but the first few games of the season are always a bit weird. Let’s see where we are at when we settle a bit.

[st albans fox]

The loss of little wes and JE is the equivalent of liverpool last season losing VVD and Gomez 

 

that took them from competing for first to competing to fourth 

 

its a huge problem for us 

[danny.]

48 minutes ago, Chrysalis said:

I already think this season will be tougher regardless of how we started, west ham are now a very strong team, everton and spurs are potential teams to be fighting for 5th-8th as well which is where I expect us to finish.

 

Top 4 locked down now, the two manchesters, liverpool and man city will just be too strong.

The three Manchesters then

[shailen]

It's funny how this all comes out after a bad result. Didn't hear this when we beat Wolves last week so what's changed? 

[filbertway]

We're struggling with the same issues we ended last season with. We don't create enough good chances. When we break we generally only have Vardy in the box against 4,5 or 6 defenders. Unless one of our top class players bails us out with a worldie then we struggle.

 

When a team sits in and we don't manage to score in the first 10-15 minutes then the vast majority of the time the same thing plays out. Rodgers refuses to admit that we're being stifled, we either go into the break level or a goal down and then Rodgers continues to refuse to admit that we're being stifled. Then he makes a proactive change around 65-70 minutes and all of a sudden we look good again. 

 

Unless we're 1-0 up and dominating the game and then he decides to give the other team all the power by taking off an attacker for a CB and turning the last 15 minutes into the nervey game that it should never be.

 

It took 30 minutes for our first shot last night.